Summary

The Early Bird Catches the Squirm – Kiran describes his relative happiness at being tutored in advanced language arts by the kindly, sympathetic Mrs. Goldberg. Their lesson involves the diagramming of sentences that, Kiran says, reminds him of his art, both in terms of beauty and how happy it makes him feel. This leads to Mrs. Goldberg asking to see his art, which he shows her. Kiran’s narration here slips into a future tense as he describes how, in a moment, Mrs. Goldberg will express her appreciation, and then returns to present tense as he describes how, in the moment that he is waiting and watching for her reaction, he assumes it will be negative. This, he comments in narration, is because his life is defined by expectations of being viewed and treated negatively. Ultimately, Kiran’s drawings of himself as Krishna...